Three Times Liz and Red Almost Kissed (and the one time they did)
by jackandsamforever
Summary: Liz and Red have danced around each other for far too long. They're finally ready to move things forward, but they keep getting interrupted. This is meant to be somewhat humorous, while probably being angsty too.
1. Chapter 1

**AN: **Part one of four. The other three chapters will come out quickly.

**Disclaimer: **I don't own anything related to the Blacklist.

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**Near Kiss #1: Set six months after the finale. Liz is still living with Red.**

Liz collapsed to the plush, expensive carpet in a heap of sweat. She had just finished another round of Insanity in front of the TV and was exhausted. She had tried many things to stay in shape while living a Nomadic lifestyle with Red, but nothing really seemed to kick her trash quite like Insanity did.

She groaned and rolled to her back, still breathing hard, as she stared at the crystal chandelier twenty feet above her head. The late afternoon light shone through the windows causing the sunlight to hit off the fixture and prism at different points on the ceiling. It was actually pretty; not that she'd ever had a reason to stare at this particular ceiling before, but at least she had some entertainment while she attempted to breathe normally again.

She reached up and wiped the sweat from her forehead, but grimaced when the sweat only smeared over her face because her forearms were sweat drenched as well. She dropped her arm in defeat and resumed staring at the small rainbow prisms dancing across the walls while listening to the home screen of the Insanity DVD play the same annoying song on repeat. She didn't have to energy to sit up and turn it off.

Her heart rate finally slowed enough for her to hear herself think; which was when the front door opened and closed. Shit. Red was supposed to be gone until the next day. Why was he home already? The couch blocked her view of the entry way, so she laid there and hoped he would go upstairs and bypass the living room altogether so she could sneak into her bedroom without him seeing her like this. She had a weird thing where she didn't like people watching her work out, or seeing her sweaty and gross after. She had managed to elude Red seeing her like this for months; but it looked like her luck might finally run out.

She heard the sound of his expensive shoes reverberate through the vast entry hall and held her breath as she tracked his movements to the entrance of the living room. "Lizzie?" He sounded curious, not worried, so she continued to lay there silently, not daring to move a muscle. He must have been distracted by the Insanity movements on the home screen of the DVD, and thankfully not paying any attention to the area in front of the sixty inch TV, because after a few moments his footsteps finally moved away and began to move up the wood stairs in the entry hall. She let out a long breath and smiled as she heaved herself off of the floor. Crisis averted.

She quickly walked over to the TV and turned it and the DVD player off, then lifted the hem of her shirt to her face and wiped the sweat away. She needed to shower before Red did a more thorough search and found her still standing there.

Liz hurriedly walked up the stairs as quietly as possible, wincing when the top stair creaked loudly. She stood there for a few seconds, but didn't hear anything, so she continued around the corner and froze when she saw Red leaning casually against her bedroom door with a towel draped over his shoulder and his head tilted to the side as he stared at her expectantly. She winced and avoided eye contact as she slowly continued forward while trying to coax all the loose strands of sweaty hair behind her ear.

She finally came face to face with him, but didn't look up until she felt the towel drape over her shoulders. She looked up to see a small smile on his face.

"I do have to say, Lizzie, that I don't think I've ever seen you like this." There was humor in his voice, and she couldn't help but roll her eyes. They had been dancing around each other for months, avoiding talking about feelings that they both clearly had for one another. And as a result, it seemed their interactions were getting more and more strained as they tried to ignore the elephant in the room. She was tired of it.

"And why do you think that is?" She didn't allow him to answer as she continued, "Anyway, I thought you were going to be gone until tomorrow. Why are you back so soon?" She managed to keep her voice steady as she took in his appearance. He looked entirely too appealing as he had already removed his vest and tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt so that she could see his white undershirt. She sucked in a shaky breath and rose an eyebrow, waiting for him to answer.

He reached forward and tucked one of the strands of hair she'd missed behind her ear and said, "The meeting didn't go well and we had to leave; instead of trying to set up another meeting, we came home." She could tell he wasn't telling her everything, but she didn't feel like prying it out of him. He was exhausting sometimes. Well..most of the time, actually.

She grabbed the ends of the towel as it began to slip off her shoulders and pulled it around her so she covered herself up a little more. She was dressed in a tight, revealing tank top and only just realized how much of a show he was probably getting; but true to the gentleman that he was, she never saw him look down one time.

She took a step to the side to attempt to get around him. "Well, I'm glad you're back, but I need to shower, then we can talk more."

He didn't move aside though, and instead opened his arms. "Come here, sweetheart. I've missed you entirely too much." He'd only been gone for a few days, but she felt the familiar butterflies in her stomach at his words. Those butterflies should be either exhausted or dead by now as much as they'd been working at her stomach for the past couple of months.

She shook her head and tried to push past him again. "Come on, Red. I'm all sweaty and gross. Let me take a shower first."

He moved forward and enveloped her in a hug, and she found that she no longer cared about anything as she melted against his body and wrapped her arms under his dress shirt. She could feel the heat of his skin seeping through his undershirt and scratched the middle of his back lightly as he kissed the spot in front of her ear. "I don't care about that, Lizzie."

She sighed softly and closed her eyes as all her worries seemed to seep away at his touch. She didn't know why she kept fighting her feelings for him when she always felt better in his arms. She tended to forget that he was a dangerous criminal, and that it would be against FBI policy for her to ever enter into a romantic relationship with him.

They stayed like that for a few minutes until he pulled away and cupped her face with his hands, then traced her lips with his thumbs. She smiled as his thumbs moved away from her lips and over her cheeks, tracing the dark circles under her eyes. There was a flicker of concern in his expression, but he didn't ask why it looked like she hadn't been sleeping because he knew she wouldn't tell him; and she would never tell him that the reason she wasn't sleeping well was because he wasn't there. That sounded desperate.

Suddenly he was moving his lips down to meet hers, and she couldn't do anything but close her eyes and part her lips and silently thank the heavens that he was finally going to kiss her. It was about damn time.

He was millimeters from her lips when Dembe's clear, strong voice floated up the stairs. "Raymond, you have a visitor."

Liz opened her eyes to see him close his as his sigh ghosted across her lips. "I'm sorry," he whispered as he pulled back and leaned his head against the door behind him. "I'll be down shortly, Dembe," he yelled back. She could hear the annoyance in his voice, and knew that Dembe would be able to hear it too.

Liz untangled her arms that had been locked around him tightly and took a step back. He opened his eyes and said quietly, "We're not finished here, Lizzie."

She shook her head, then boldly grabbed his belt buckle and pulled him to her so she could kiss his cheek lingeringly. After she moved back, she smiled teasingly. "We'll see."

He swallowed noisily as she quickly stepped around him and opened her door, then shut it behind her and leaned against it. She let out a sigh and listened to his footsteps move to his bedroom across the hall and his door close.

That had been close. But instead of feeling nervous or afraid, she felt annoyed at the interruption.

She threw the towel on the bed and began to strip her clothes off so she could take a shower. While she waited for the water to warm up, she planned how she was going to get him alone again so she could finish what he started.

She couldn't wait.

**AN: **So I know what you guys are thinking. Another story by jackandsamforever and she still has ALL those unfinished ones? I know, I know. I'm horrible. I've had writers block for so long, and this fic is to help break through that. I promise to get back to those shortly. Thanks for reading, and I hope you'll let me know what you think! :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Near kiss #2: Set two weeks later in Arizona.**

Liz brought her empty water bottle up to her dry, cracked lips and tried to suck the last few drops of water out of the bottom. She, Red, and Ressler along with a slew of other FBI agents were in Phoenix, Arizona in the middle of July investigating the disappearance of a seven year old little girl. Red suspected it was the job of one of his blacklisters, so they were ordered by Cooper to go investigate.

Liz wanted to kill Red, then take his fancy water bottle that he was currently chugging a few feet away from her, drink the rest of the water, then shove it up his ass. That's how thirsty and annoyed she was.

He didn't act like the 110 degree weather was affecting him at all as he strode over to her. His cream suit was still perfectly pressed, and she didn't see a drop of sweat anywhere. She eyed the water bottle in his hand, but refused to ask him for a drink as he stopped in front of her. Her pride wouldn't allow herself to admit weakness in front of him. "You look miserable, Lizzie."

She glared at him. "Well seeing as it's hotter than hell, I think I have an excuse."

Red smiled and held his hands up in mock surrender. "It's not my fault that the disappearance took place here. No need to be snippy."

She sighed and looked over his shoulder to see Ressler talking with the lead investigator. She gestured with her chin behind Red. "So what's going on?"

Red shrugged and took another long drink from his water bottle. He swallowed and said, "Isn't that your job? I'm only here because you are."

Liz sighed and sat down heavily on the curb behind her, then took her chapstick out of her pocket and applied it liberally before sticking it back in her black slacks. At least she was under a tree so she wasn't sitting in direct sunlight, but the heat was so stifling that it didn't make much difference. She was beginning to feel dizzy and overheated, and figured that sitting down would at least make it so Red wouldn't have to catch her if/when she passed out. She stuck her head in-between her legs and surreptitiously wiped the sweat on her forehead away on her pants as she laid her head on her knee, looking away from Red and at Ressler, who was still chatting away with the Arizona FBI agents.

She heard Red sit next to her, sitting closer than he should as his thigh brushed her hip, then she felt a hand in-between her shoulder blades, the heat of it burning through the thin material of her blue silk blouse. She tried to shrug him off, but instead of taking it off, he moved his fingers to her neck and squeezed it softly. "Sweetheart, your skin is burning up." He sounded worried.

She moved her head to her other knee so she could look at him, her eyebrows furrowed. "I don't feel very good." She was beginning to feel sick to her stomach.

Red picked up the water bottle next to his hip and handed it to her. "Here, you need to drink water. You're displaying sighs of heat stroke."

She shook her head. "I'm fine. Besides, that's your water, I already drank all of mine." She couldn't see his eyes behind his sunglasses, but from the way he pursed his lips, she could tell he was annoyed with her.

"Just take it and drink it. Quit being so proud that you can't accept a drink from your..." He trailed off and looked away as she sat up and took the water bottle reluctantly from his outstretched hand. What was he going to say? Partner? Lover? (Although they had yet to even kiss, much to her chagrin) Friend?

She opened the cap and lifted it to her lips, then hesitated. He had just taken a drink from the bottle only minutes ago, and now she was going to drink from it. That was pretty much the equivalent of kissing him, right? Because wasn't kissing pretty much just swapping spit anyway?

She shrugged minutely and lifted the bottle the rest of the way to her mouth, then took small sips. She tried not to think about how Red's lips had just touched where hers were now, but that's all she could think about as she studied his profile as he watched cars pass by on the road in front of them. He had a nice profile. Strong jaw. Well shaped nose. And his sideburns. Hell, she had dreams about those damn things. She loved them. And she was beginning to feel better now that she had a chance to get some water in her so she could really focus on his features.

She glanced back at Ressler once more to see that he had his back to them, then turned back to Red and hesitantly lifted her fingers to trace over his sideburns. He tensed a little, but didn't pull away as she ran the pads of her fingers down his slightly stubbled jaw, then over his soft lips. Slightly reminiscent of what he'd done to her a couple of weeks ago. She stopped at his chin, then retraced her path on his face and began to pull her hand away until he grabbed it and turned to look at her.

She hadn't realized she was so close to him until his face ended up only being inches from hers. She suddenly found that nothing mattered at all but her and Red in that moment. Not the FBI. Not the case. Not the blacklister. Not the heat.

Just her and him. Him and her.

She put her free hand on his thigh and leaned forward slightly until her lips barely brushed his, when they were interrupted once again by Ressler's annoying voice. "Keen, I need you to come over here!" She jerked back, realizing how much of a mistake it would have been to kiss Red in front of everyone; especially since she wasn't even supposed to like him really.

She looked behind her once more to see that Ressler wasn't paying any attention to her, then she yelled back, "I'll be right over!"

She squeezed his thigh once, then smiled as she moved to stand up. "Thanks for the water, Red."

He reached over and squeezed her calf lightly, then took the water bottle from her hand and nodded. "Next time, don't be so stubborn that you pass out from heat exhaustion before you ask me. You're welcome to anything of mine. You know that."

She looked down at him and smiled. "Yeah, yeah. I might be mooching some more water from you soon. My mouth is already dry." She took a couple of steps, then turned back to him. "Rain check?"

He seemed to understand what she was referring to and smirked. "Rain checks expire after two weeks right?" She wished she could see his eyes better.

She just rose an eyebrow, then turned and walked towards Ressler with a grin on her face.

**AN: **See? I told you I would be quick about it. ;) Thanks so much for the reviews from the last chapter. I truly do appreciate every single one of them. You guys are the best. Thanks for reading! And please, if you feel so inclined, let me know what you think. :)


	3. Chapter 3

**Near Kiss #3: Set one week after chapter two**

Liz stood next to Red in the hive and tried to pay attention to Cooper as he issued orders to all the agents in the room. They were still working on the same blacklister, and he was proving to be more elusive than Red had given him credit for. They had received a phone call only minutes earlier from the FBI office in Utah regarding a couple of hikers who had come across a dead body in one of the national parks that resembled the missing girl.

They stood in the back, the nearest agent a good five or six feet away, and she leaned her elbows on the work desk in front of her and tried to ignore Red, who was regaling her with a story about how he once hiked the Himalayan mountains and came across a monastery full of monks and lived there for six months. She looked over her shoulder at him and glared while shaking her head; trying to tell him with her eyes that now wasn't the time.

He laughed quietly, but to her surprise, actually listened to her and tuned back in to Cooper. He stood close to her, much closer than was appropriate, but they had been attached at the hip for more than six months now and she didn't mind the close proximity. It was just normal to her now. Of course others wouldn't see it that way, but she was beyond caring that. She knew people gossiped about them constantly.

As she listened to Cooper give Ressler his orders, a hand landed on the small of her back, then ghosted down to the belt loop of her pants and tugged her upwards. She didn't resist and let him pull her up next to him, then she sidled impossibly closer, her shoulder pressing into his side as she said quietly, "What are you doing, Red?"

He raised his eyebrows but kept his mouth shut as his eyes shifted to the front of the room again. She rolled her eyes at his childish antics and tried to move away, but he hadn't let go of her belt loop and she wasn't able to move. "Let go," she hissed quietly out of the side of her mouth.

He huffed an amused laugh, but didn't let go. She felt his fingers release her belt loop, and she went to move away, but his fingers didn't leave her body and landed on her ass. She sucked in a surprised breath as his hand moved across her bottom, applying pressure with his palm as his fingers finally found a natural resting place on her left hip.

The lights were dim enough that no one could really see what they were doing in the back, and there weren't any cameras pointing in their direction, so she found that she didn't mind the contact. She knew he was just trying to garner a reaction from her, but instead of giving him what he wanted, she turned her head and smiled sweetly at him.

His eye twitched in surprise, but his fingers squeezed her hip once, then began trailing up her side and under her untucked blouse until he found bare skin. She was so distracted by his fingers slipping under the waistline of her dress pants that she hadn't noticed that the room had gone silent. Or that everyone was staring at them.

"Agent Keen?" Cooper sounded pissed.

She snapped out of her trance as Red slowly removed his hand so he wouldn't attract attention. She was grateful that no one could see where his hands had been.

"Sir?" She said apologetically, hoping he wouldn't question her further.

Cooper sighed. "As I said before I realized you weren't listening, you, Red and Ressler are assigned to the team heading to Utah. You leave in an hour."

She winced at his reprimand, but nodded in understanding. "Yes, Sir."

He began to turn to another agent, but then looked back at her and said sternly, "Next time I catch you not paying attention, you'll stay here on desk duty. Do I make myself clear?"

Liz nodded. "Yes, Sir. Understood."

Cooper studied her for a moment before his eyes shifted to the almost miniscule space between her and Red. Instead of saying anything, he just rubbed the bridge of his nose tiredly and turned back to the rest of the agents.

She managed to put some distance between their bodies, then looked over and watched as Ressler approached them. He looked tired. It had been a long two weeks for all of them; and it looked like there wasn't going to be a happy ending to this case.

Ressler stopped on the opposite side of the worktable and looked at Red. "I'm assuming we're taking your jet?"

She could tell Red was going to tell him to find his own way there, so she spoke up before he could. "Yes, we're going in the jet. You can ride with us to the airstrip, Dembe will drive."

Red narrowed his eyebrows at her presumptuousness, but didn't call her out on it, and instead nodded once in agreement.

Ressler glanced between them with narrowed eyes, then shrugged and left to go do whatever he needed to do before they left.

Liz let out the breath she was holding and rounded on Red. "Thanks for getting me in trouble."

The corner of his mouth lifted slightly as he said, "You're very welcome, sweetheart. Now, shall we make our way to the car and wait for dear Donald to catch up?"

"Fine, whatever. Let's go." She didn't wait for him as she turned on her heel and began walking towards the elevator. He caught up quickly and walked next to her in silence.

Just before they reached the call button, Red grabbed her arm and pulled her down the hallway to their right that housed mostly empty offices and a janitor's closet.

"Red, what are-"

"Shh, shh, Lizzie. Trust me." He continued to pull her past a few doors and stopped in front of the janitor's closet, then checked behind them to make sure no one was watching and opened the door and pulled them inside.

She searched around for the light, but couldn't find it. He shut the door, then before she had a chance to react, he pushed her backwards in the dark until her back hit a wall. Luckily nothing had been on the floor for them to trip over.

He didn't say anything as he kissed her neck, then her collarbone as his hands found their position from earlier and began exploring her skin. She focused on staying upright as she said breathlessly, "What the hell are you doing?"

His mouth halted on her shoulder and he moved his face up to where she could sense his lips were once again only inches from hers. "I couldn't handle one more minute without knowing how you taste. We've been dancing around each other for far too long." He moved to her jaw where he began placing light kisses, then he kissed the spot under her ear with reverence and began mumbling unintelligible words as he nuzzled her cheek with his nose; it was as if he was trying to take in every detail of her face. She couldn't do anything but hold on as she felt overcome with arousal.

He began moving again and kissed the corner of her mouth, then pulled away again and said in a low voice, "I'm going to kiss you now."

She laughed. "About damn time," she mumbled as she scratched the nape of his neck lightly with her fingernails.

She could sense him lowering his mouth to hers as his hands framed her face, and she closed her eyes in preparation. That's when both of their phones rang at the same time; scaring her half to death.

"Son of a bitch," she said loudly as Red moved away from her so she could dig her phone out of her pocket.

She heard him answer his phone as she answered hers. "Keen."

"Liz, where the hell are you? I'm sitting in Red's car with Dembe waiting for you guys to show up. I thought you were in front of me."

She cleared her throat. Trying to think of an excuse. "I..had some paperwork I needed to finish. We're on our way now. Bye." She hung up before he could continue his tirade.

She shined her phone towards Red to see the same annoyed look on his face and sighed. "Apparently we need to stop trying to kiss each other, because someone doesn't want it to happen."

He frowned and shook his head. "It's going to happen, Lizzie. Soon."

She shivered at the tone of his voice and wanted him to kiss her right then, but they had people waiting on them and she wanted to take her time kissing him. A lot of time.

She nodded in resignation and walked towards the door. She opened it, then gestured with her hand for him to go through before her.

As he walked past her, she slapped his ass a little more aggressively than she had originally intended, then passed by him as he stopped in surprise.

She smiled innocently over her shoulder as she walked down the hallway. "Payback's a bitch, Red." Then she listened as he shut the closet door and hurried to catch up to her.

**AN: **Ha! I don't think I've ever updated a fic so quickly two days in a row. I should be able to get the last chapter up tomorrow. No more teasing though, in the next and last chapter they'll actually kiss! Yay! ;) Thanks so much for the reviews/follows/favs..I truly appreciate them. Thanks for reading, and I would love to hear what you think. :)


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: **Set two weeks later

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Unbelievably, Liz hadn't seen Red since they'd flown to Utah and identified the body of the young girl who had gone missing weeks earlier. Red had quickly declared that murder wasn't his blacklister's MO, and that there was no point in pursuing him when he most likely wasn't even in the country; and since the case didn't have to do with anyone on his list, he was no longer interested. Ressler had ranted and raved at Red, but Red had stood there with an odd look on his face until Ressler's anger had sizzled out and he'd stalked away in annoyance to inform Cooper.

Checking to see that no one was paying them any attention, she had put her hand on his arm and asked him if he was ok. He'd sucked in a breath, then looked over at her with furrowed brows and troubled eyes beneath his amber sunglasses. "I need to leave for a short while. I won't be gone longer than two weeks." He had begun to move away, but she had wrapped her fingers more firmly around his arm and stopped him. "What? Why? What's going on?"

He had turned to her, then chewed on the inside of his cheek as he'd contemplated what to tell her. "I have some business I need to attend to. It's personal, Lizzie, that's all I'm willing to say." He had placed his free hand over the top of hers and squeezed her fingers lightly, then pried them from his arm and walked away without a second glance.

She had stood there watching him, feeling like she'd been slapped, until he'd disappeared with Dembe over a small hill. She had felt a myriad of emotions. Hurt, anger, confusion, depression. She hadn't understood why he would just suddenly leave like that, and she had had to ride home in a commercial jet with Ressler, which only had annoyed her further.

She hadn't heard from him since. Not even a phone call.

OOOOOO

Liz laid down on the cool sheets of her queen-sized mattress and stretched her sore body out as far as she could tolerate. It had been a week of hell; one that she hoped to never repeat. Between getting knocked out by a suspect that they had been pursuing, then going to the ER visit for concussion like symptoms, and not hearing a word from Red for almost two weeks, she was stressed to the max; and her thirty-four year old body was feeling the effects of it. She no longer could recover as quickly as she used to.

She yawned widely and reached over to switch the TV off, then pulled the smooth plush blanket over the top of her and snuggled down into her soft mattress.

She remembered that she needed to set her alarm, and leaned up on her elbow to set it, then quickly checked her phone once more for a message from Red. Nothing of course. Like the other 200 times she had checked in the last two weeks. She wasn't even angry anymore. She was just apathetic.

She laid back down and pulled the blanket firmly around her, tucked the edges under her feet, then cleared her mind and quickly fell into an exhausted slumber.

OOOOO

Liz opened her eyes blearily and tried to make out the numbers on her alarm clock. She blinked a few times and saw that it was after three in the morning. She didn't know what had woken her up.

She turned onto her back to see a shadowy figure moving around on the opposite side of the bed. Suddenly wide awake, she dove for her nightstand where her service pistol rested, but before she could open the drawer, his quiet voice cut through her panic. "It's just me, sweetheart."

She tried to calm her racing heart as she reached over and flicked the bedside lamp on its lowest setting, then winced as the soft light penetrated the room. As soon as her eyes adjusted, she observed him standing there in an untucked white undershirt and dress pants and glared at him. "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

He grimaced and sat down on the edge of the bed; far enough away that it would be hard for her to cause him bodily harm if she so chose to. "Let me explain."

She flopped back down on her pillow and let out an incredulous laugh while folding her arms over her chest. "Fine. You have thirty seconds before I kick you out of here. I mean it, Red."

He let out a little sigh of relief, then moved back so he could lean against the headboard. She tried not to watch his ass as he moved, and quickly closed her eyes so she could concentrate on what he had to say and not her body's reaction to him.

"Twenty seconds," she warned.

He quickly launched into his explanation. "When I saw the body of that little girl, she reminded me of my daughter. It hit me so hard, so quickly, that I couldn't do anything but retreat and hope to cope with it on my own."

"Ten seconds," she said with her eyes still closed. She felt a pang of sympathy for him, but he still didn't explain why he'd been gone for so long.

"I visited her gravesite where I had an empty casket buried and a headstone made. It brought forth a lot of unresolved feelings, and I decided to put in a renewed effort to find any new information that may have been out there about her killer. I promised myself two weeks, and if I was unable to find anything, then I would come home. That's why I've been gone, and that's why I haven't contacted you. It was only for your safety, Lizzie."

"Time," she whispered as she turned on her side to face him with tears in her eyes. She reached forward and ran her fingers lightly over his bare thigh, then pulled back and looked at him. "I'm sorry."

He shook his head and blinked back the glimmer of tears in his own eyes as he watched her. "You have nothing to be sorry for. I should have explained myself, but like I said, it was only to keep you safe. Your safety is everything to me. I couldn't bear to lose you, too."

Deciding that she wasn't angry with him anymore, even though he had acted like a typical male, she pulled up a corner of the blanket in invitation for him to join her.

He slid down and under the blanket, then reached over her body and flicked the light off. She put her head on his shoulder and wrapped her left arm around his waist, then pulled him close. He smell faintly of cologne and cigar smoke as she kissed his neck softly; his late-night stubble lightly scratching her chin and cheeks.

He threaded the hand of the arm that her head was lying on through her hair, then wrapped his other arm over her hip and whispered, "Hmm, Lizzie. You don't know how much I missed you."

She sighed quietly and moved her fingers under his shirt to caress his side softly. "If it was half as much as I missed you, then I do know."

He huffed a quiet laugh, then kissed her temple and yawned. He massaged her scalp with the pads of his fingers, then pulled her head back until he could look her in the eye. "For what it's worth, I apologize for not contacting you, or explaining myself properly before I took off. It won't happen again."

Her eyes had adjusted to the darkness again so she could make out the contrite expression on his face. Which was something that she hadn't seen often from him. That told her he really meant what he was saying.

She smiled and reached up to run the back of her knuckles over his cheek and jaw lightly. He leaned into her hand and closed his eyes at the contact. Their breaths mingling as their faces remained close together.

Deciding that he looked entirely too kissable, she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his. She hadn't planned on pressing for more because she knew he was exhausted, and began to move away until his hand moved up from her hip to cradle the side of her face and keep her where she was. He softened his lips and opened his mouth to her as his thumb caressed her cheek. She let out an involuntary moan as his tongue pressed into her mouth and moved with hers. The kiss was unhurried, but it was hot and all-engulfing; and so much better than she had ever imagined. He began to pull away, but she reached up and pulled him back so she could have a turn exploring his mouth as he had hers.

During the kiss, she found that she adored the small sounds he made, the little moans and breaths he made when she did something he particularly liked; it made him seem more human. The real Raymond Reddington. Not Red Reddington.

After many moments later, the kiss came to a natural end, and she laid her cheek along his as they both tried to slow their breathing. He pressed feather light kisses to her jaw as she moved her hand back down and ran her fingers up and down his forearm.

Eventually his little kisses slowed, then stopped all-together as he fell asleep; content to be in her arms.

It took her a little longer to fall asleep, but she spent that time studying his features relaxed in sleep, and eventually his breathing lulled her into a peaceful sleep; the first she'd had in weeks.

She finally knew what it was like to kiss him. It had been worth the wait.

**AN: **So there you go. You know I couldn't resist throwing a little bit of angst in there, but I hope the wait was worth it. Thank you all SO much for the responses to this fic, you're all so great. Please let me know what you think! Reviews make my day. :)


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